It has been an annual anticipating event for many people since the renowned huge success of “Bunlangmek: The Musical” in year 2001. This year, Thakonkiat Veerawan comes back again with a big musical production ever–“Kang Lang Pap” or “Behind the Painting: The Musical”, which is adapted from a best selling novel by the same title.
Kang Lang Pap was written by Sriburapha, who was one of the most respectful Thai authors and was named by UNESCO as the world most outstanding people in year 2005. This novel was first published in a newspaper since 1937; and had been made as movies twice in year 1985 and 2001 with equal success.
Personally, I have not seen any version of the movies. I only read the novel when I was in a high school as a required reading for my Thai study. This year, before I went to see the musical, I read the book again and it made me realized that how wide was the gap between the language and style then and now. I forgot how beautiful the language in the old days was. Many expressions were not used nowadays. Language is really revolving.
Anyhow, talking about the musical version of this long time famous novel, after the curtain was down and the light went off, I had a mixed feeling between satisfaction and bore. I guessed it was the theme and tone of the story that made me bored. I did not say that it was bad; just some moments that were too interminable. Nonetheless, there were a lot of bright sides that still made this musical worth watching. One of those was the actors and actresses, who were really good in both singing and acting, especially all the lead characters. I was expected to see the best performance from Pat Suthasinee Bhudhinund and Rudklao Amaradith; but then Bie Sukrit Visetkaew was surprised me. He, actually, sang quite well but still needed to sharpen up his acting skill.
Off course, music was the core of the musical and this year they did it again. However, personally I preferred Bunlungmek to this one. There were only one song that I liked the most, which was sung by both Pat and Bie on the scene when they both were apart.
This year production was the biggest ever. The talk of the town scene was the Mitake Waterfall scene where there was real water on the stage. I was amazed seeing water gradually flowed and covered up the stage then fell over at the front stage where audience were sitting. It was kind of funny to hear the roaring noise from the audience when water started flowing and almost no one paid attention to the performers on stage, including me. Wow, this time they really made it! I felt happy with the producers and creators of the production team. :-)
One other thing that disappointed me was the classic words by Khunying Kirati, the lead actress–“ฉันตายโดยปราศจากคนที่รักฉัน แต่ฉันก็อิ่มใจว่าฉันมีคนที่ฉันรัก”–“I am dying without one who loves me; but I am satisfied that I have one whom I love”, which was not well portrayed at all in the musical. In my opinion, there should have been some other way to do it in a more touching and emotional manner than what they did.
Well, I will see what will be the next surprise in the coming year from Thakonkiat and his team.
